The Thinker: A CMA Blog

This year marks the Cleveland Museum of Art's 25th Parade the Circle event. Since 1990, the Cleveland Museum of Art has been bringing this FREE signature summer event to Greater Cleveland. University Circle comes alive with color, music, and art for all ages. Leading up to the June 14, 2014 event, we feature some of the stories that make up the last 25 years of Parade the Circle. This week, we feature five of those stories from the beginning.

Widely acclaimed as one of the leading architects of his generation, Rafael Viñoly is renowned for his elegant and expressive use of structural form and modern materials such as glass and steel. His work also reflects sensitivity to context and an intuitive understanding of how to respond to a specific site—attributes that made him an ideal choice for the Cleveland Museum of Art's building renovation and expansion project. In this video interview with the architect, Viñoly explains his vision behind his redesign of the CMA, reflecting upon which parts of its story to rewrite and which parts to keep.

Lois Conner began her photographic explorations of China with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984. Since then, she has returned annually, traveling extensively and using her 7 x 17 banquet camera to describe the landscape, architecture, and people. Beijing: Contemporary and Imperial: Photographs by Lois Conner focuses on her work in the city over the past thirty years. Before the opening on Sunday, March 30, we caught up with Conner for the stories behind a few of the photographs from the exhibition

Throughout the month of March, the Cleveland Museum of Art spotlights women in the arts here on the CMA's blog. This week, Sonya Rhie Quintanilla. the George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, discusses images of goddesses from the museum's collection.

This year marks the 25 years of the Cleveland Museum of Art's Parade the Circle event. Since 1990, the Cleveland Museum of Art has been bringing this FREE signature summer event to Greater Cleveland. University Circle comes alive with color, music, and art for all ages. Leading up to the June 14, 2014 event, we feature some of the stories that make up the last 25 years of Parade the Circle.

Throughout the month of March, the Cleveland Museum of Art spotlights women in the arts here on the CMA's blog. This week, Interim Deputy Director for Collections, Education, and Performing Arts Deborah A. Gribbon discusses the life and work of artist Alice Neel.

The Hank Willis Thomas exhibition is on view simultaneously at the Cleveland Museum of Art through Sunday, March 9, 2014 and at the Transformer Station through Saturday, March 8, 2014. In their final days before closing, we caught up with the artist himself to talk about some of the works in the shows.

Fred Frith is a songwriter, composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist. He learned his craft as both improviser and composer playing in rock bands, notably Henry Cow, and creating music in the recording studio. He performs in Cleveland on Friday, February 28. The event is part of the CMA Concerts at Transformer Station series, which strives to showcase eclectic and adventurous music from around the world in the Hingetown arts venue.